Maggot: District 9 was awesome as well, no doubt about it. I'm a sucker for sci-fi.

Then you'll probably note the common theme that characterised three of the best sci-fi movies to come out last year. Avatar, District 9 and Moon alike had giant corporations as the villains. Something worth commenting on, eh?

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“I'm yet another resource-consuming kid in an overpopulated planet, raised to an alarming extent by Hollywood and Madison Avenue, poised with my cynical and alienated peers to take over the world when you're old and weak.” -Bill Watterson

Yep, it is the way the world is turning. Nation states grow less and less powerful, with even the mighty U.S. bowing to the will of the major corporations. Nations states are simply put not the threat of the future, but a thing of the past.

So gather a congregation for yourself, create a joint venture corporation. Me, I want to unite the world's tech heads in a giant corporation whose goal is the colonization of the solar system.

There is no need to rebel and declare your own nation state anymore. You got better odds with a corporation. You can even apply your preferred social model to the hierarchy of the corporation.

Ah, that yet remains to be seen, AG. As the current conflict between Google and China demonstrates, rising nation states still have a powerful say in how things are done. Espionage is used by the Chinese government as a means to seize important trade secrets from major western corporations, secrets which it subsequently passes on to supposedly private Chinese corporations that in reality answer to the Communist Party. Western corporations are well aware of this practice but continue to invest in China since they are afraid of being cut off entirely from the Chinese market if they protest too much. I think major corporations are still going to have cooperate with certain nation states for the foreseeable future.

And lest I digress from the subject at hand, I must metion that I watched the Gran Torino recently. Never have I seen a senior get as bad assed as Eastwood was in that flick.

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“I'm yet another resource-consuming kid in an overpopulated planet, raised to an alarming extent by Hollywood and Madison Avenue, poised with my cynical and alienated peers to take over the world when you're old and weak.” -Bill Watterson

Yes, of course nation states are still of importance, and will remain so for years to come. But there is a change, and major corporations do hold the ear of even the most powerful states. Like you say: The Chinese spy for their corporations, not the other way round.

When the Magna Carta was signed in 1215, the english crown did not lose all its power at once. However, it started something that developed into the monarchies of the modern day, in which the sovereign is more of a symbolic figure than an actual power.

Perhaps we are witnessing something similar in regards to nation states and corporations?

Oh, yes, Gran Torino was awesome. Talking of senior action heroes: I also enjoyed Liam Neeson in that action movie in which he played the spy father of an abducted girl. High paced and fun!

What you say is probably true given the importance of the free market. However I suspect that corporations with bakcing from powerful states will have a huge advantage over those that don't. The ''national champion'' is a monstrous hybrid that blurs the line between corporation and state.

Which action movie was that by the way? It sounds familliar but the name escapes me. Thanks.

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“I'm yet another resource-consuming kid in an overpopulated planet, raised to an alarming extent by Hollywood and Madison Avenue, poised with my cynical and alienated peers to take over the world when you're old and weak.” -Bill Watterson

I have gone to watching some older Dr. Whos. Some of them are amazing, others cause my head to hurt. I guess you can't go back to your childhood. Then again, I said the same thing about the old Speed Racer cartoons. I thought these might have more replay value.

Definately gonna second the Robin Hood BBC stuff, entertaining, also recently sat down and caught up on the last 2 or 3 seasons of heroes, the one netflix called season 3 had something like 30 episodes in it or some such nonsense... Both were good

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For the love of meat, shut up! No one wants to hear your emo character background! My hands are literally melting away, and I'm complaining less than you!—K'seliss, Goblins

Recently saw Wolfman with Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins. The vibe was nice. The victorian, fog-shrouded back-drop was great. Some scenes were quite effective and visceral and some aspects of lycanthropy were handled quite nicely. But overall, I was left with an overwhelming sense of meh.

one nice quote:

Larry Talbot: "Why haven't you killed yourself yet? You should have killed yourself a long time ago!"Father: "Believe me, I've thought of it many times, my boy. But in the end, I just found that life was too glorious. Curse or no curse"

PoisonAlchemist: Man Muro, you boost my confidence and then you just go crush it with a heartbreaking work of staggering genius.Pariah: Don't tell him things like that, if his head gets any bigger he'll float off like a weather ballon :p

2012 I have been pretty excited about seeing it when I realized it was out and not in my queue. So, after Dr. Strange (which was pretty d**n good) I put in 2012.

I could write a 100 page essay on what a crazy piece of crap this movie was. I play RPGs, I can suspend disbelief with the best of them....but what they expected me to go through was about the stupidest excuse for "cool" special effects I have ever seen. I am so utterly disgusted watching this forced, contrived, cliche, stupid ending that I am having physical difficulty. I just need to see how much more dumb they get, and they always deliver stupider and more dumber stuff every 3 minutes.

Yes, awesome effects though. Some great ones. But every time somebody talks or does an action around the effects it just makes me grit my teeth. The last movie I hated like this was Angels and Demons but even with that there wasn't such a physically negative response.

I did scream and bite my nails during this movie, but because I was so embarrassed by it. HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In some extremely realistic scenes we saw major cities of the world shatter and collapse, and we saw a gigantic wave devour the Himalayans.This may come as no surprise to you, but I predicted this possibility already 10 years ago. In a harpsichord high I had a vision, and in that vision the truth was laid out before me.

I cannot begin to express how much I LOVED the movie, and what a difference it has made in my life.

Note: Construction of my sub-tractor nuclear shelter is underway and I have already stocked the shelves with 2000 cans of sheep testicles and other foodstuff from the norwegian fine cuisine!

AG, do remember that I will be living in Europe, once again, within the year. I have the power of google maps, IP addresses, and sheep testicle receipts. I can find you. I will start using the Chuck Norris Gym in order to prepare for our encounter.

When you hear an out of tune harpsichord in your dreams, know that is me approaching.

Clutch Powers. If you have had fun with any Lego game, you will be amused by this movie following the "Adventuers of Clutch Powers" and his elite (cough cough) team. Tongue in cheek but fun. If you have played with Lego Set, the in jokes are more fun.

Justice League: Crisis of Two EarthsThe revisit of The Justice Leagues encounter with the Crime Syndicate of Earth 3. Really, Batman in all his forms is the most dangerous person in the Multiverse. http://www.warnervideo.com/justiceleaguecrisis/

Superman and Batman: Public Enemies. Batman and Superman vs The President of the United States - Lex Luthor. This is a great retelling of one of the top selling graphic novels.

District 9 I actually really enjoyed this one. Aliens crash land and are forced into a refugee style 3rd world camp where they are closely monitored and neglected. Great flick. Love the camera/documentary type feel to it.

Hurt Locker meh...

Ninja Assassin Hey, I like brainless. Great unique fights and kills in this one. Worth it for that alone.

Dead Zone TV Episodes or whatever they are on Netflix. Series anyway. Hold pretty well with the original to start. I haven't had a chance to continue watching but I enjoy them.

Merlin Season 1 Only watched 3 episodes but I can see myself continuing it. Starts out as Merlin as a young lad just coming into his magic. Pretty well done IMHO.

Discworld: The Color of Magic - (2 episodes) Kids like it and while it started out a bit, well, dumb, it quickly got complicated and caught my attention.

Pandorum A Deep Space Horror type flick with some attempts at twists and confusion. Sort of obvious as you watch but the way they did it was a little confusing...probably on purpose to try and throw you off. Either way, good romp with a couple scares and a good ending even if it is predicted.

Dollhouse From Serenity fame I gave it a try. I can see the definite correlation of the main idea but it just doesn't do it for me. Didn't like the main actress too much either (easy, she is hot but just didn't fit to me).

Moon Another one that was pretty obvious pretty quick but a good story overall. Worth it for a bored weekend night.

Midnight Express After I ravenously ate through all the Prison Break seasons (AWESOME) I still needed a prison fix. This was based on a true story of a kid trying to smuggle drugs out of Turkey and then his time spent in a Turkish prison. Great flick!

Spartacus I think it is a love it or hate it. But how can you hate a series with an episode titled Whore? I had trouble waiting the 5 hours after it officially aired to get placed on Netflix.

(went through my "watched" queue to see what I have been up to the last few months. On Demand stuff is frick'n awesome. Took my delivered DVDs down to 1 at a time.)

PoisonAlchemist: Man Muro, you boost my confidence and then you just go crush it with a heartbreaking work of staggering genius.Pariah: Don't tell him things like that, if his head gets any bigger he'll float off like a weather ballon :p

Skins - A funny/sad British "teen" drama. That description doesn't really do it justice, but I can't really think of any way to describe it that does, so just watch a couple of shows and, well, yeah. It's not exactly the kind of show I'd recommend for a teenager, but it's a nice depressing show of funny awesomeness, or funny show of depressing awesomeness, I can't really decide...

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For the love of meat, shut up! No one wants to hear your emo character background! My hands are literally melting away, and I'm complaining less than you!—K'seliss, Goblins

Burn Notice: If you haven't seen the show, go view season 1 via netflix or series disks. It is smartly written with a great take on the world of espionage. AFter you watch season 1, not only will you want to run an espionage game, with "Tips from Micheal", you will be able to "do it".

Robin Hood: This is the most recent BBC series I am talking about. It is a fresh take on Robin Hood, with all the classic elements. A single epsiode would not grab you. You have to watch it progress over time to really appreciate it. Season 1 and 2 have been great fun. (Not as fond of season 3, but you can tell the series was running out of steam late season 2).

Jackie Chan Adventures: This cartoon is a great deal of fun. Nicely written. Good character development. Everything you would want from a Jackie Chan movie (including appropriate butt kicking action) in a fairly child friendly animated hour package. Each season is a complete arc, but you need to see the season before it to really appreciate it.

Latest Narnia. Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I will say I was not impressed with the last one. The first one held me better just because I read the series and was a little excited that they made them into movies.

Dawn Treader. I don't remember the books at all really, especially this one. I remember reading it in the car at a very young age on a cross country road trip with the family. Don't remember a lick of the story though.

It seemed to me as a badly plotted DM game. A bunch of disjointed events wrapped up with some random magic crap set up in a very linear style. They never even expained what the hell the evil was. A green glob that took sacrifices and other ships and hid them safely on a island of evil. Banished by a fairly simple procedure and everybody is back happily ever after. Oh, lets throw a dragon in there too. Cool.

Story was crap, totaly crap but if I went zombie mindless I enjoyed it. That annoying kid was fairly fun to watch through the movie but very forced. Sigh.

If you haven't seen The Gamers or The Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising by Dead Gentlemen Productions, I highly recommend them both. They mostly poke fun at the common gaming tropes, and the acting is significantly better in number 2. For college productions, they are very well done IMO.

"Only in hiding one's identity can one truly be known." -- The monk, trying to sound wise.

Along with Deathwatch (WWI supernatural starring Gollum!), Nightwatch (Crazy Russian-style ghost-busters with vampires...) And Uzumaki (Bizarre Japanese horror which haunts me with its snail spirals to this day!)

PoisonAlchemist: Man Muro, you boost my confidence and then you just go crush it with a heartbreaking work of staggering genius.Pariah: Don't tell him things like that, if his head gets any bigger he'll float off like a weather ballon :p